the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Thomas Gray Gray : Ode on the Spring

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 2 July 1792: '...& now in plain sober prose I am much obliged to you for your ode which I like very much. but why will you translate? It is a servile employment & not worthy of you. You want a metre you say for your next. You know Parnells Fairy tale? but I am the worst person to apply to as all my odes are irregular except Ignorance which you have. Gray's Spring & drownd cat are pretty I think — but I am not regular myself & detest regularity.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey      Print: Unknown

Thomas Gray Gray : Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 2 July 1792: '...& now in plain sober prose I am much obliged to you for your ode which I like very much. but why will you translate? It is a servile employment & not worthy of you. You want a metre you say for your next. You know Parnells Fairy tale? but I am the worst person to apply to as all my odes are irregular except Ignorance which you have. Gray's Spring & drownd cat are pretty I think — but I am not regular myself & detest regularity.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey      Print: Unknown

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